The Black Ranger
by Harb
Summary: Black Jack, or X, whatever you wish to call him, is building an army, not a large one, but a small force of his apprentices. Sorry for the short summery, limited characters. Rated T for violence and language.
1. The First Piece of The Puzzle

On a cliff a figure in the coat of an NCR Elite Ranger sat. This was Mr. X, otherwise known as The Black Ranger. He sat on his perch that had an overview of Camp Forlorn Hope. He put the binoculars he had in his right hand up to his eyes and he surveyed the sight below him. He was near the eastern entrance and was thinking of a way to get past the guards at the sandbags.

He knew his goal, he was to find NCR troop dossiers for review. He had dusted off his old ranger coat for this, and he was ready to begin. He sled down the slope with the moon on his back. He went up to the sandbags. The guards, obviously recruits as they had an air of fear near one of the Elite Rangers, snapped at attention to the ranger.

"Ranger Anthony Smith reporting for troop dossier transport to Hoover Dam." X said as he gave a salute. One of the guards raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'dossier transport'?" "I mean I was given specific orders by General Oliver himself to come to Camp Forlorn Hope and bring back the dossiers of troops who would be useful at Hoover Dam. Now, are you going to let me through or am I going to have to speak to your commanding officer and have the both of you sent to one of the most hellish battlefields that the NCR is holding?!"

This made the recruits even more fearful and in with this they let X through. He gave a salute and they returned it. He smiled to himself as he contemplated how long he had before one of the recruits asked about the fake transport. He quickly ran towards the command tent. He quickly pushed aside the tent flap and went to one of the officers who was sitting in a desk with its back turned to him.

He went up to the desk and asked the woman there "Excuse me miss, where might I find the troop dossiers for transport to Hoover Dam?" Se turned around and looked at him. "What do you mean by 'troop dossiers for transport to Hoover Dam'?" "I have been sent by General Oliver to retrieve all troop dossiers for review and selection to fight at Hoover Dam." She gave a nod and got up and walked to a filling cabinet, took out a key and flipped through until she found a folder of troop documents.

She handed it over to him and he gave a smile. He pulled out a smoke bomb from his jacked and pulled the pin and threw it on the ground. He quickly pulled out a knife and slashed through the tent canvas. The women who was operating the radio looked around.

"Well, command is gonna have my ass!" She said as she sat back down and found a small card with a circle with arrows breaking parts of it off written in black ink on the table.

X ran over the plain near Novac with pure joy welling within himself. He had successively completed his mission and he was now going to his underground hideout. He eventually recognized one of his land markers, the symbol of chaos spray painted on a rock, which meant that he was close. He found a code panel. He typed in his access code, 56565692, and dust in front of him rattled eventually revealing two metal doors that opened revealing a staircase. He walked down the metal staircase with his boots making a clinking sound and pressed a button that closed the doors. Lights flickered on in front of him and he flipped a switch that opened the metal door facing him. I opened to reveal a well kept waiting room with two couches, a table with an ashtray, and a table with a lamp and a 10mm pistol on it. He walked behind the desk that was at the back of the room, flipped a hidden switch and a secret door behind him opened. He walked through it, pressed a button, and the doors closed behind him. Inside was a hallway with three doors in it. He walked towards the end of it and opened the door there. In it was a well lit room with a bed, a display case, a desk with a terminal on it, two chairs facing a table, and a map of the wasteland. He took off his ranger gear and put it in a case. He threw down the troop dossiers for him to read in the morning. He went over to the bed, pulled the covers over himself and went to bed.

PFC Jolene Angelus sat at the campfire with her best friend, Jack Dredger, and several other soldiers. One of them, a young recruit, leaned forward towards the fire.

"Hey guys, I've heard a tale of a guy called The Black Ranger."

"Well yah, we have several rangers here in Forlorn Hope." Another soldier said

"No, he's not one of the regular rangers. They say that the lenses on his helmet are green, he wears a different coat, and he always leaves this at the scene of his acts." The soldier said as he produced a card with a circle being split by three small arrows with a larger one heading it.

"So whats this guys name?" Jack asked.

"There are four names: Black Jack, Cardholder, X, and The Black Ranger."

Just as these trooped where having their conversation, X was on a ledge with an overview of their fire place and he was poised with the scope of a sniper rifle observing Jack and Jolene. He of course did not intend to shoot anyone, if he did then he would have put on an armor that he came across in the Divide, instead he wore a tight black and white stealth suit with pockets strewn about it. One of the people he had taken an interest in from the troop dossiers was Jolene Angelus. She was a Private First Class with impressive skills in sharp shooting and stealth combat, one of the many things he looked for in an apprentice. She was the NCR piece to the puzzle, he had already found someone of the Legion who was of good skill in hand to hand combat and a good smith, and someone on the Strip that could call a chance, had a silver tongue, and was good with as pistol, and his brother who was a heavy hitter who was a manic and was good friends with a rifle he had modded. He sought to unite all factions of the Mojave. His first part was Jolene. He sat and read over the NCR and Legion troop records he had procured. Soon the fire had gone out and the troops had gone to bed. He slid down the rock face, with several Stealth Boys in one of the pockets of his suit. He turned one of them on and followed Jolene through the camps until she came to her barracks and opened the tent flap. X followed in pursuit She lied down on one of the bunk-beds. X looked right at he as she went to sleep. Since she was the only one in the tent he went up to her tent. He gently pushed her shoulder and before she could say anything X put his hand on her mouth.

"Now, don't panic, I wont kill you, if I was going to, you would have already been dead."

He gave a nod and stopped struggling. X took his hand off of her mouth.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Lets just say I go by the name Black Jack. Now, do you know why I'm here?"

Jolene gave a gasp of shock. The Black Ranger was real! She shook her head in response if she knew why Jack was here.

"I have reviewed your files. I have a proposition for you. You see, I seek to unify the Mojave. I will do this by finding one person, from each of the Mojaves factions: Vegas, the Legion, and the NCR. These people will become my Rangers of Justice. I have chosen you to represent the NCR in my Order. Do you accept?" Jack asked as he stood above Jolene. Jolene thought about it and what it would bring.

"What would I receive as a Ranger?" She asked.

"When my Rangers have spread into a wider scope, one of the three leaders of the Order, training that surpasses even that of a NCR Ranger, a home, and all of the food and water you could eat."

"What do you mean by three leaders, what about you?"

"I am the tender box that will spark the strength of the Rangers."

Jolene also took into consideration Jacks offers of training, power, and food. But then her sense of loyalty to the NCR reminded her of her duty.

"What about the NCR?" She asked.

"What I propose will help to save many lives of the NCR, and what I intend to do will be for their good."

Jolene gave a smile and asked. "Where do I sign?"


	2. Piece Two

Jolene was given a card with Jacks symbol, a circle being split by four arrows, and a map with coordinates to a meeting spot she would go to in three days time. Meanwhile Jack had slipped out without being seen. His next stop was Vegas, but first he had to return to his home and gear up. Freeside was known for being full of muggers and thieves, and for his last recruitment, he would be going to Legion territory. He soon found the rock with his symbol and the secret entrance. He walked into the secret hallway and opened the door to his left. In it there was a wall stocked full of weapons and shelves of ammo near it. He picked out a combat knife, two pistols: One that was small, gray, with two vents on the barrel. He remembered how he was given this gun by one of the traders of Freeside for resolving some troubles with casino owners. He picked out another pistol, a large one with a mechanical revolver cylinder that took 5.66 rounds. He took both of them, loaded them, and then put them in hip holsters. Finally he took out a key and placed in a hole to the left of the wall of weapons. He turned the key and the concrete wall slid back revealing a suit of NCR ranger armor painted black with a red trim and green lenses in the helmet. On the chest plate of the armor the words "iustitia ultionem mutatio" above the symbol of chaos. He took off his stealth suit and helmet and put on the armor. It was heavy but it gave great amounts of protection with very little loss of agility and he found that it had an effect on Legionaries. Since the words justice, revenge, and change were written on his chest in Latin, and since they could read it, they saw him as the shadow of death, and due to his record, he was. With full gear in hand he walked out of the armory and out of his base. He walked the long dusty trail near Novac and saw the massive tower of Helios One and was brought back to fond memories. Someday he would detonate the charges he had set there, if the NCR didn't find them first. A voice snapped him out of his nostalgia and he looked to see three raiders looking at him and a fourth in metal armor talking to him.

"Hey, asshole. Give us all of your caps if you don't want to end up our next dinner." Jack just looked at them. For a few seconds the world stood silent, then gunshots erupted. Jack had drew both of his pistols and had already shot two of the raiders with pinpoint accuracy between their eyes. The remaining two tried to pierce his armor but it was useless. Jack holstered his guns quickly then he drew his knife. The first one he grabbed by the neck and drove it repeatedly into his head. The other, seeing this, began to ran. Jack got the knife into throwing position and then he threw it at the raider. It hit him the back, blood coming out of the wound. Jack walked to the corpse and yanked the knife out. Realizing that he still alive, Jack took out the revolver and put two rounds in the back of his head. Leaving the bloody scene behind him, Jack continued on his road to Vegas.

Sol Skelleta, a wiry man with an eye patch on his left eye and a tan,sat at a Black Jack table in The Tops. His brother, Skemeda, sat beside him. Sol leaned over to his brother and whispered.

"On my mark, we get up, and then we fill our contract." Skemeda, being a mute, nodded. He took out the 9mm pistol he hid from the guards from his suit. His brother did the same. The brothers where here on a hit. They where hired by a man who owed a great deal of caps to one of the Chairmen of The Tops and had them to take care of it. They got up and went to The Aces theater. They found their target sitting at one of the booths. The man looked at the brothers.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" He asked.

"I believe you can, if you would be so kind as to die?" Sol asked. The man had a look of confusion on his face. Before he could respond Skemeda shot him under the table. The brothers quickly got up and ran out of The Tops and headed for the gate to Freeside. They where back in their offices in a building in Freeside before anyone knew what happened. Skemeda, after Sol went into the office they shared, shut the door and found a man wearing ranger armor that had glowing green eyes looking at them hiding behind it.

"What the fuck!?" Sol screamed as he drew his 9mm.

"Put your pea shooter away boy, I'm here with a proposition, and unless you want me to tear out your spinal columns with my bare hands, you might want to not shoot me."

"What is your proposition then?" Sol asked lowering his gun.

"You see, I seek to unify the Mojave, to do this I seek someone from the three major factions of it. The NCR, Caesars Legion, and Vegas, you two are the Vegas piece of this puzzle. I invite you to join The Rangers of Justice."

"What does it pay?"

"Food, water, training, equipment, a home, and, when I have spread the Rangers into a wider scope, becoming one of the leaders of a nation."

"What do you mean, one of the leaders, do we take turns who gets to to rule?"

"No, you will be part of a council that consists of your counterparts of the NCR and the Legion."

"Could you leave so that way my brother and I may discuss it?"

Jack gave a nod and then went out into the stairway waiting for them to come to a decision. He pressed his ear to the door.

"Do you think we should take this Skemeda? I mean, from what I can gather, this will be the biggest payoff ever."

A moment of silence came and then Jack heard footsteps coming to the door. He quickly backed away.

Sol stood in the doorway.

"Were in." Sol said.

**Second Chapter, hope you like it, sorry it was so short, but when Jack has all of his people, they will become longer.**


End file.
